phil's blog

From here on out, I am not using the word Windows any more when referring to a computer operating system - it shall be known simply as "W". Reminds me of a former President that messed a lot of things up, just like how W has messed things up over the years. About time for a name change.

she is a sweetie here

I wanted to display a summary of recent items from a data feed in a block, using the titles as links to view the entire article. After evaluating different ways of grabbing feeds, I decided on the Aggregation module, because it offered most of the features I needed, with the least aggregation <g>. But it didn't have the block feature I wanted, so I built my own module to do so, called Aggregation Block.

It's pretty simple; there is an admin page that looks for any feeds you've added, and allows you to expose it as a block. You can add a custom title, and limit the number of items displayed. Nothing fancy, just does the job.

You can see it on my Electronovelty site, which I use it to pull in Drupal articles from Glatzland. Read more »

Sure, Apple can seem arrogant at times, but usually can get away with it, based on the "it ain't bragging if it's true" logic in their world of reality distortion fields. But when Steve Jobs made his condescending remarks last month, suggestion their hardware problem was the result of users being too stupid to know how to hold a cell phone properly, the emperor's clothes were entering severe unraveling mode.

My feeling was mostly one of disappointment. I've been using Apple products since the days of the Apple II, and have the greatest respect for both their imaginative engineering and no-compromises approach to usability and beautiful design. But you can't piss on your users too long and get away with it. Read more »

After Angel's two kids were born last month, I had hoped things would wind down... but Galena had other plans. These two popped out, a boy and a girl, and are doing well. They are so darned adorable at this age, but already have that mischievous look in their eyes. Goats are great for weed control and producing milk, but are so destructive they always seem to be a losing proposition to me. It's like they sit around all day thinking of things to destroy. I'll enjoy them for the time being, at least!